Distributed ledgers, such as Blockchain, provide a new system for recording transactions and storing data. In general, distributed ledgers hold a log of transaction events that may be replicated across a public or private distributed network. Cryptography and digital signatures may be used to determine valid parties and transactions such that all parties/observers agree on the order and the state of the ledger in real-time without having to rely of a trusted third party to hold the true “golden copy.” The distributed ledger thus provides a practically unchangeable, verifiably true audit trail.
To date the focus of distributed ledgers, such as Blockchain, has been on financial transactions. For example, crypto currency, such as Bitcoin, uses a public ledger to make and track financial transactions between different parties around the world without the need of a central bank to validate and process the transaction.